A takeaway was handed a zero food hygiene rating after an inspector found a dead moth in the flour, expired food in the fridge and dirty utensils in the kitchen.

Manhattan Pizza and Kebab in Bridge Road, Oulton Broad was slapped with the rating following an inspection in September by Waveney District Council.

An inspector found 18 areas in which the takeaway needed to change its practices and said urgent improvement was necessary, describing what they had seen in the following Food Business Intervention Reports.

The inspector said the walls and floors in the main kitchen and basement food prep rooms were dirty and greasy, as were the wash-hand basins which did not have hand soap or drying facilities.

Cooking equipment such as pizza lids, pizza ovens, and the shelves of a walk-in freezer were all described as “dirty”, while the report also points out “filthy” touch points around the food prep area including door handles, light switches and handrails.

The electric insect killer was found not to be working, with the inspector adding: “I observed a dead moth in a container of flour”.

Other worrying findings included out-of-date houmous in the fridge, a decomposing passion fruit with “evidence of mould growth” and raw meat stored next to cheesecake in the fridge.

However, owner Ozay Enver has disputed some of the descriptions in the report.

He argued there was no dead moth in the flour and said: “It wasn’t a moth in flour; it was a fly on butter.

“I don’t know where it came from, it just came and sat on the butter and he saw it.”

Mr Enver also disagreed with the inspector reporting there had been no hand soap and said: “That is not correct, how could you run a business without soap?”

While he admitted raw meat had been placed next to cheesecake in the fridge as a mistake by new staff, he explained the cake was still in a container and never touched the meat.

He added: “This shop has been open since 1994 and we haven’t poisoned anybody.

“We are all human and we all make mistakes. We put the house in order and are waiting for them to come back and put it right.”